The first time Will Solace sees Nico di Angelo, he's 7. He's an adorable 7-year-old too, his mother tells him. Maybe that's why his older brother had picked him to sell his raffle tickets. Lee had said something along the lines of, "No one wants to buy raffle tickets from a pubescent teenager. You're still tiny, parents will love you." Will didn't really have a choice, but if Lee was taking him to Ben & Jerry's after, he was all for it.
He wasn't expecting that many adults to close their front door in his face, though. He's just starting to lose hope of deserving Ben & Jerry's when he finds one house a block away from his he hasn't bombarded with raffle tickets yet. Will knocks on the door. A boy around the age of 5 answered him. The little boy with black hair peered at him doubtfully. Will launched into a 'speech' of sorts that he had memorized throughout the afternoon. "Hello, do you wanna buy raffle tickets? The biggest and bestest prize is a 300 target gift card and a ton of other prizes. They only cost 2 dollars and a packet of 12 cost 20, do you want some?" The black-haired boy stared back at him before speaking.
"Let me ask my Papa." The little boy ran off into his house, his sock clad feet sliding on the rich wood floor. He had forgotten to close the front door, so Will looked inside. It was a nice house, with rich dark floors and a large mahogany staircase. He stayed on the front steps, swaying from foot to foot. A girl around the age of 11 walked down the staircase carrying a small crying baby. From his vantage point, hear her whispering pretty things to the baby. He caught small snippets, the most memorable being, "Please stop crying Hazel, you're too happy to be crying," among others. The girl, he noticed, was the spitting image of the black-haired boy he had seen moments before. She froze on the stairs and met his eyes.
"I'm sorry, but can I help you with something?" The girl asked him, no doubt wondering why a boy with blonde hair and a neon orange t-shirt was on her front porch staring at her. Will repeated his 'speech' to her, and she took pity on him and bought a grand total of one raffle ticket.
The black-haired boy returned, with a pout on his face. The nice girl who bought a raffle ticket turned around and said something in a language that Will had never heard before to her brother. "Cos'è successo il mio Nicolò, perché hai una faccia così triste?" (What happened my Nicollo, why do you have such a sad face?"
The boy pouted some more and responded in the same language. "Papà ha detto che non potevo comprare i biglietti della lotteria!" (Papa said I couldn't buy any raffle tickets). The girl shook her head, and this time spoke in English. "Don't worry Nico, I already bought one. Look, this nice boy will write your name on it so you get the prize, right?" The girl turned to Will.
Will nodded solemnly and took out a pen. The girl took it and scribbled something on the raffle ticket she had bought. As he was walking away, Will stole a glance to the raffle ticket stub, and looked at the name she had written down. Nico di Angelo. It was a nice name, it sounded like poetry.
The second time Will Solace saw Nico di Angelo, he's selling raffle tickets again. Only this time, he's a year older, and knows which houses to avoid, and which houses to swarm with his raffle tickets. Lee told him to avoid 'the creepy house on Asphodel St.', whatever that meant.
This year, he was selling faster than he was last year. In fact, he just needed to sell 12 more tickets to become worthy of Ben & Jerry's. Will was distracted by the pretty autumn leaves swirling in the air. Some had water on them from yesterday's rainstorm, and it was nice to see the sun glistening off of them. He liked the sun. His daddy had always told him that the sun was a gift, and one day, it could disappear, so he should always appreciate any ray of sunshine that was presented to him.
All the houses in his neighborhood had white picket fences, and small front porches decorated with white window shutters. They were all cookie cutter houses, except for one. So naturally, he approached that one. He walked up the dark, weathered front steps with an odd sense of familiarity tingling in the back of his mind. A knock on the front door later, he was reminded why. A small boy with black hair opened the creaky front door. Will remembered the black-haired boy from last year, did he visit this house last year as well? It seemed so. The boy had grown a year older, as did Will. He stared at him with big brown eyes. Will smiled, his orange freckles glistening in the sunlight. "Hi hi! Do you wanna buy raffle tickets? They cost 2 dollars each and 12 of them cost 20. There's an awesome prize too, a 250-dollar Kohl's gift card!"
The boy (which Will surprisingly remembered was named Nico something), contemplated his choices, and seemed to deem the raffle tickets worthy. He bolted up the mahogany staircase. He came downstairs again and handed Will a two-dollar bill.
"Write Nico on it please, that's my name." The little boy (Nico, he reminded himself) told him. Will nodded, taking out a purple gel pen he had in his pocket, scribbling Nico on it.
Will pocketed the pen and gave a small wave before leaving again. As he exited through the well-kept front lawn, he turned around and waved again, but Nico was inside once again. As he was leaving, a small hand on the second floor made a childish gesture to him with pudgy hands. He assumed this was Hazel (surprisingly, he remembered her as well) and "waved" back.
He smiled pleasantly, mostly for himself, partly for the lovely afternoon, and maybe just a teeny, tiny bit for the little boy by the name of Nico.
That would be one of the last times he smiled for a long time, unbeknownst to him. Later that year, Lee lies buried in dirt and sorrow beneath a gravestone. Will misses selling raffle tickets. It's funny how simple things, like selling raffle tickets, can make you miss something now intangible. So now his smile is clouded, much like the rest of his family.
Nico wonders why the boy with orange freckles doesn't sell him raffle tickets anymore, or why his sister stops smiling later that same year. He doesn't know why Hazel stops crying, or why he doesn't see her anymore. He doesn't know anything, but he's not sure he wants to (or does he?).
The third time Will Solace sees Nico di Angelo, he's selling his own raffle tickets in 7th grade. It's kind of nice, to sell raffle tickets again. Not that he liked it, but he told himself that for "optimistic reasons".
His optimism didn't stretch as far as to excuse the dreary task of asking cat ladies for 2. Once again, he goes down Asphodel St. like he did all those years before. Knocking on the front door, a boy with bags under his eyes and hauntingly pale skin opens the imposing door. Will takes a small breath before launching into his speech and commences. "Hello, would you like some raffle tick—"
The imposing door was now relocated into his face, nearly breaking his nose. He huffs, turns around, considers his choices, and knocks again.
After a few minutes, the door opens again. This time it reveals an annoyed boy with onyx hair. Nico contemplated him a little and then digs around in his pocket, and hand Will two dollars. "Nico. You can write Nico on it." He sounds tired, as though he could sleep through a titan war and not feel anything. Will frowns a bit, writing the name down. He's starting to say thank you to Nico, when something in the background catches his eyes.
A dead middle-aged man slumped on an aged recliner. Will gasps a little, and under closer observation, notices he's not dead. No, not dead, just dead on the inside. Nico grits his teeth, and brings the door to the near closing point, shoving the money to Will through the crack.
"Please leave. Thank you." Is all Nico says to him before disappearing inside of his dark refuge, also known as his house.
The fourth time Will Solace sees Nico di Angelo, it's to tell him he's won a 75-dollar iTunes gift card. A few weeks have past, and the black-haired boy's empty eyes still haunt him. Nevertheless, he knows it is his duty to deliver the prize, as it was he who sold the raffle ticket to him.
And so that's why he found himself on the dark front steps of the creepy house on Asphodel St, once again.
He knocks (again). He waits (again). He fiddles with his hands (again).
Ah, parallels.
Finally, after much ringing of the outdated doorbell, Nico di Angelo answers his front door. He expects hollow eyes once more, and is instead greeted with something even more terrible than the aforenoted. This time, his eyes are widened with fear and tiredness, as though he's been terrified countless times before.
He soon sees why. In the background, he sees the "dead" man stumbling near the door. He's carrying a glass bottle in his hand, dreadfully near him and Nico. His first instinct was to step away from the raving drunk man, and that he does.
The man comes nearer, and Will sees him closer. His eyes are full of misery and regret, blossoming white tears of rue. He cried out, "NO! My children, my wife, my everything! My children, my-"
Nico jumped into his father, carelessly bumping the glass bottle. He tried to calm him, and pushed his father into a secluded living room area in the back of the house, encompassed in shadows. Nico turned to Will. "I told you not to come again, yet you did. Please leave, don't come back. It's for the better for all of us."
The door slams in his face again. He can hear crying from the other side, but he doesn't know if it's from Nico or his father. Either way, it haunts him more than Nico's eyes ever did. And just like that, they became strangers again. The distance between them, now farther away than Heaven and Hell.
The fifth time Will Solace sees Nico di Angelo, it's 2 years later, this time on his own doorstep. Will finally graduated Middle School, only to find High School is just as hard, oh joy. The good part is, he sells raffle tickets in spring, as opposed to fall, unlike the local middle school. So he doesn't worry about that. At least not yet.
Truth be told, he was rather enjoying his afternoon. That is, until he hears a knock on his front door. No one ever knocked on his house; the Solace family had few connections and even fewer visitors. Nevertheless, he opened the front door.
Lo and behold, a 7th grade boy with black hair and tired eyes. Also known as Nico di Angelo.
It seemed creepy that he still knew this boy he had met few times before name, but experiences similar to the one two years prior aren't easily forgotten. So, it's a bit of an understatement how surprised he was to see the same boy, this time on his front porch for a change.
"Hey. D'you want raffle tickets?", is all that escapes Nico di Angelo's mouth. Not enthusiastically either mind you. Will rids his head of his thoughts, and proceeds to buy an entire booklet worth twenty dollars of raffle tickets, out of sympathy. That's what he told himself.
Two weeks later, disappointment ensues. He really thought he would win something. He wasn't expecting a hoverboard or anything, but maybe just a Target gift card or so. However, he received nothing. Which makes him pissed.
"Dang, I really thought I had a shot at winning something," he whispers to a boy by the name of Nico standing beside him. Amongst the crowd standing in front of the raffle-podium, he had found him and had decided to complain to him about the injustice in the raffle ticket system.
"Tough break Raffle boy," he deadpans, walking away, sipping at his apple cider.
The sixth time Will Solace sees Nico di Angelo, he's in the frozen foods isle at the local K-Mart at midnight. Don't question his motives, he needs ice cream to get through finals right now. Desperately.
And so that's where he finds himself, deciding between Americone Dream and Tonight Dough. They're both his favorite flavors, but he can't decide which is the superior frozen delicacy. To his left, someone has decided that Mocha Walnut Ice Cream is the best flavor.
Now, Will is not normally person to judge others. But his study-induced mind seemed to think otherwise. "Ew," Is all that escapes him. He didn't expect himself to say it out loud, but when the stranger next to him gives him an affronted look, he realizes he did. He turned beet red, and hastily apologizes.
The stranger sighs. "I just hope you're not trying to sell raffle tickets to me again."
Will laughed good-naturedly (still embarrassed about his previous encounter), and internally screams at himself. Upon closer observation, it was revealed to him that this "stranger" was his kinda-sort of neighbor/acquaintance Nico di Angelo. He stuck out a hand and introduced himself. "Will Solace. You don't need to say your name, I memorized it over the years."
Nico stared at his hand incredulously. After a small moment of internal panic, he shook it. Little did he know, Nico di Angelo would never be more grateful for anything.
The seventh time Will Solace saw anything Nico di Angelo and raffle tickets, he was buying all of their daughter's raffle tickets so she wouldn't have to sell them like they did.
"Love, do you really need to buy all of those tickets?" Will sighed, staring at his partner. Nico scoffed. "Of course, you Raffle-Boy. Do you not see me buying all 120 of them?"
From the other side of the room, their twelve-year-old daughter stared on at the awkward encounter going on between her parents. Will drew his gaze from his husband to his daughter. He gave her a slightly exasperated smile.
"Please Bia, tell your father exactly how insane he is to think that we're going to buy all of your raffle tickets this year."
Bianca lowered her gaze. "Uh, you're very crazy papa. But… if you guys would like to buy some, I wouldn't be opposed." Will glanced between Nico and Bianca like a deer caught between headlights.
"Not you too! It's not fair, you guys outnumber me." He pouted falsely, secretly amused with his small family.
Bianca sighed. "The point is Dad, these raffle tickets are going to be sold, one way or another. And it seems that Papa has decided how." She said, taking the raffle tickets from her father's hand and flipping them with her fingers.
Nico wrapped her in his arms, sticking his tongue out at Will. Rolling his eyes, he joined his small family's hug. It took a long time for them to create this family, but it was worth it in the end. And neither of them regretted anything.
A/N: Hi hi! Special thanks to FluffyKittyCat2, who helped me with this story. So go check them out! I had a lot of fun writing this, please review!
-Fia